Charles Causley has stood apart from the mainstream of contemporary poetry. His work bears little relation to the most celebrated achievements of the modernist movement but refers back to older, more specifically English roots. Taking his inspiration from popular folk songs and ballads, Causley stands with writers, such as A.E. Houseman, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, Walter de la Mare, Robert Graves, John Betjeman, and perhaps Philip Larkin, who are part of a conservative countertradition in English letters which stresses the fundamentally national nature of its poetry and the critical role of popular forms in its inspiration.

Much of Causley's poetry has been written in the ballad form. Indeed he is the most celebrated and accomplished living writer of ballads in the English language, but his achievements are not so narrowly focused as many critics believe. He has mastered an impressive variety of forms, and the true unity...